Economic Equity

Our Vision

Money! Getting it, saving it, managing it, and sometimes borrowing it—is key to nearly everything we do in life: buying a home, going to college, starting a business, retiring with dignity, and passing something along to the next generation.

Everyone should have access to the tools they need to earn, save, manage and grow their wealth.

Banks and other financial institutions are mandated to invest in African American communities. They’re mandated to treat all customers fairly—regardless of factors like race, income or language.

Our Challenge

Sadly, our financial system has long worked better for some than others, with people of color all too often getting the shortest end of that stick. One of the he most extreme example is what was a practice called “redlining”. Banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions literally drew red lines on the map to mark off low-income or minority neighborhoods where they intentionally would not lend or invest.

Redlining is now very illegal, but its very real effects still linger.

For every $1 of wealth a white family has, the median Asian family has about 81 cents, the median Latino family has 7 cents

…and the median Black family has less than 6 cents.

Black Americans are far less likely than their white counterparts to own their own homes, and have been hurt disproportionately more by the foreclosure crisis – often because they’re victimized by predatory lenders who saddled them with high-cost loans that were most likely to lead to foreclosure.

Too many people of color are fundamentally locked out of the traditional banking system & thus resort to costly alternatives like payday lenders & check-cashing stores… or worse!

Our Reason

We must bring the voices of the Black businesses & communities directly into corporate boardrooms & halls of government. Our Economic Equity program focuses on the following areas:

Homeownership
Because homeownership is crucial for family wealth-building and neighborhood stability, we will work with government officials and financial institutions to remove structural barriers to homeownership and stem the recent tide of foreclosures &

We will work to ensure that minority small businesses have opportunities to grow, flourish and create jobs. We will focus on access to capital and contracts (supplier diversity) by employing the following methods: